With new ways to amp up your marketing, innovative ways to use social media, ways to market the cloud, and outside-the-box thinking, the fourth annual Partner Velocity event kicked off yesterday in Barcelona, Spain.

So far, attendees have heard from speakers about a variety of topics, including: How to “thinque funky,” differentiation, using mobile for marketing, cloud, and personal tips on growing professionally and balancing home/work life. We’ll have interviews with speakers and session recaps over the next few days. I got the chance to visit with a few partners to find out what they’re eager to learn about at this year’s event.

With only one full day of the event under our belt, we’ve already learned a ton. Read on to find out what we’ve heard about so far.

Originally designed for tracking automotive parts for vehicle manufacturing, QR codes may very well be the next wave in B2B marketing. Funny how technology can sometimes transcend its original purpose…

Although, we, here in the US, may be a bit slower to adopt QR codes,than the rest of the world, it seems QR codes are poised to make it to the mainstream in the near future. Then, it’s only a matter a time before they become a staple in every B2B marketers arsenal. Here’s a few points to back that up:

According to the International Telecommunications Union, there are 2.5 times more mobile phone users than people connected to the Internet.

Smartphone manufacturers are pre-installing QR code readers on their phones. This already includes Android, Nokia and some Blackberry phones.

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